An electronic trading system includes an electronic matching system for tradeable items, such as stocks, options, and commodities. The electronic trading system often includes an electronic exchange to perform order matching. The electronic exchange also provides, among other things, market data and trade confirmation data to subscribing trading devices. By way of illustration, an electronic exchange in derivatives trading is the CME® Globex® electronic trading platform, which is offered by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Group; though the inventions described herein are not limited to derivatives trading.
To trade in an electronic trading system, a person (commonly a trader) uses a trading device to receive and electronically process data from the electronic exchange. The trading device generally outputs the data to the person via one or more display screens. The person may also interact with the computer and the data using an input device, such as a mouse or keyboard or both. For example, the person may place trade orders, modify trade orders, and delete trade orders at the electronic exchange using the trading device. Depending on how a trading device is configured, trading with it may require a great deal of the person's attention (e.g., as in manual style trading), require very little or no attention (e.g., as in automated style trading), or somewhere in between.
It is well known that prior to submitting a trade order to an electronic exchange, a trader manually configures one or more order parameters to associate with the trade order. For example, a trader may configure trade order parameters such as, price and quantity, to associate with each trader order. It is also well known that a trader may subscribe to multiple electronic exchanges and submit a variety of specific trade orders or trading strategies to each of those exchanges. Each of the specific trade orders can be configured with different trade order parameters, giving the trader increased options for how to react to current market conditions and events. However, with so many options for configurability, it can be very difficult, time consuming, and error prone for a trader to configure and manage the many different trade order types, trader order parameters, when to submit each type of order, and how to maximize profitability.
As such, there is a need for a trader to more accurately and quickly configure trade order parameters to associate with a trade order.